(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a temperature control apparatus for a refrigerator and a control method therefor. More particularly, it relates to a temperature control apparatus for a refrigerator and a control method therefor, which mount an air circulation fan in addition to a prior refrigerating fan into the refrigerating compartment, drive the air circulation fan together with the refrigerating fan or drive only the air circulation fan, obtain a uniform cooling effect of the refrigerating compartment, feebly circulate a cool air when opening a door of the refrigerating compartment, and quickly cool the refrigerating compartment after closing the door.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Generally, a refrigerator having two evaporators includes two fans for discharging a cool air generated from the evaporators into a freezing compartment and a refrigerating compartment. One of the two fans is mounted in the freezing compartment, and the other one is mounted in the refrigerating compartment. On/off operation of the freezing and refrigerating fans is controlled by a comparison result between each compartment's temperature and each compartment's set temperature.
A conventional refrigerator will be described with reference to FIG. 1 illustrating a cross-sectional view of a conventional refrigerator.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional refrigerator includes a main body 1, a compressor 30, a freezing compartment 10, a refrigerating compartment 20, a freezing compartment door 11, a refrigerating compartment door 21, a freezing evaporator 13, a freezing fan 14, a refrigerating evaporator 23, a refrigerating fan 24, a refrigerating compartment temperature sensor 27, and a freezing compartment temperature sensor 15.
In addition, a reference numeral 12 is a rear wall of the freezing compartment 10, a reference numeral 22 is a real wall of the refrigerating compartment 20, and a reference numeral 25 is a duct 25 which separates the refrigerating fan 24 and the refrigerating evaporator 23 from a storage space of the refrigerating compartment 20, and induces a cool air flow. The reference numeral 26 is a cool air discharge hole 26 for discharging a cool air into the refrigerating compartment 20.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a temperature control apparatus for a conventional refrigerator.
As shown in FIG. 2, the temperature control apparatus for a conventional refrigerator includes: a freezing compartment temperature sensor 15 for sensing a temperature of a freezing compartment 10; a refrigerating compartment temperature sensor 27 for sensing a temperature of a refrigerating compartment 20; a door opening/closing sensor 36 for sensing an opening/closing state of the freezing compartment door 11 and the refrigerating compartment door 21; a controller 38 for controlling each compartment's temperature according to both each temperature of the freezing compartment 10 and the refrigerating compartment 20 and a door closing/opening state; a freezing fan 14 for discharging a cool air into the freezing compartment 10; a refrigerating fan 24 for discharging a cool air into the refrigerating compartment 20; a freezing compartment fan driver 40 for driving the freezing fan 14 according to a control signal of the controller 38; a refrigerating compartment fan driver 60 for driving the refrigerating fan 24 according to a control signal of the controller 38; a compressor 30 for compressing a refrigerant; and a compressor driver 80 for driving the compressor 30 according to a control signal of the controller 38.
A cooling operation of the conventional refrigerator will be described as follows.
If a refrigerating compartment temperature sensed by the refrigerating compartment temperature sensor 27 is higher than the refrigerating compartment set temperature, a compressor 30 and a refrigerating fan 24 are driven to generate a cool air. The generated cool air passes through the refrigerating fan 24, and is then provided into the inner space of the refrigerating compartment 20 via a discharge hole 26 provided on the duct 25. During cooling the refrigerating compartment 20, if the refrigerating compartment temperature is higher than the refrigerating compartment set temperature, the compressor 30 and the refrigerating fan 24 are stopped to prevent over-cooling.
However, since the refrigerating fan 24 of the conventional refrigerator discharges a cool air only toward a predetermined direction, much cool air are supplied to a center portion of the refrigerating compartment 20. A relatively less cool air is supplied to another part far from the cool air discharge direction, or to a corner of the refrigerating compartment(20), so that a temperature distribution of the refrigerating compartment 20 becomes not uniform.
In addition, if the door opening/closing sensor 36 senses the opening of the refrigerating compartment door 21 when performing a refrigerating operation, a refrigerating fan 70 stops operating, so that a cool air discharge operation is stopped. As a result, due to the door's opening, an external air of a high temperature is entered in the refrigerating compartment, a freshness of a stored food may be lowered, a cooling speed after closing the door may be considerably delayed.